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AIB Colleagues: We encourage you to submit your article proposals for this book. Thanks, Miguel
CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Fudan Latin America Universities Consortium (FLAUC
https://flauc.fudan.edu.cn/)
COVID-19 AND CITIES: RESPONSES AND UNCERTAINTIES
On December 31, 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission informed about an outbreak of twenty-seven cases similar to pneumonia that originated in the
city´s seafood market. On January 5, 2020, the Chinese government announced the origin of a new type of coronavirus, different from SARS or MERS. Some days later, President Xi affirmed that the new virus was the most serious health problem in the history of
the People's Republic. On January 22, Wuhan City was subjected to a strict quarantine. Among other measures, train and plane travel were canceled and the city's highways and roads were closed. From the very beginning it became clear that cities would play
a crucial role in confronting the new virus since the outbreak is challenging the functioning of urban systems in different ways, including the governance processes.
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has had a multidimensional impact on all spheres of societal organization and has dramatically challenged the role of cities.
Although a rapidly increasing interest in these issues has been observed (Klaus 2020), the academic literature on the particular role of cities from a sustainability perspective is obviously still scarce (Allam & Jones 2020; Corburn et al 2020; Cohen 2020).
The virus expansion process reveals vulnerabilities of urban systems, even in developed countries. Some have associated the expansion of the virus with population density (Florida 2020), connectivity and international networks. Until now, the most effective
way of containing the virus has been social distancing and lockdowns (Fang et al 2020), a paradox in a highly interconnected and interdependent world in which cities are the main contact nodes. However, cities have responded in different manners, with some
achieving notable results in containing the pandemic.
Cities are also centers of innovation and development and can play a decisive role in the battle against the disease by developing protocols, vaccines, and
treatments. Besides, cities are the principal tool to revive the economy since they concentrate sectors that are human capital intensive, but they also concentrate informal work that is particularly vulnerable to crisis like this. In this context, the big
question is: What is and what could be the role of the city in this historical moment? Faced with mounting vulnerability and increasing uncertainties, how should we plan a city´s resilience to this crisis and in the long run? How did cities respond around
the globe? Although the work on this issue should be informed be the vast literature on pandemic preparedness (see for example Georgetown University 2020), the perspective we propose is not on issues of epidemiology or public health but on urban systems facing
pandemic crisis. The dysfunctions revealed and lessons learned during the pandemic, create a unique position to calibrate or re-design urban systems for resilience, sustainability and better quality of life. There is an urgent need to rethink urban systems
in terms of service capacity, resource depletion, and economic relations to plan the efficient, effective, and equitable city of tomorrow. Furthermore, we believe that providing a multidisciplinary approach and broad revision of experiences from different
cities, especially in China and Latin America, can provide important inputs for future action.
The FLAUC (https://flauc.fudan.edu.cn/)
network –a consortium of twelve universities from Latin America and Fudan University- invites you to contribute with discussions of cities in times of a new pandemic from a multidisciplinary approach. The final product is planned to be published as en edited
book in an international academic press (https://flauc.fudan.edu.cn/9d/a0/c14438a236960/page.htm).
Papers considering issues under the following themes are particularly welcome:
Call for Chapters
Allam. Z. & Jones, D.S. (2020): On the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak and the Smart City Network: Universal Data Sharing Standards
Coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Benefit Urban Health Monitoring and Management. Healthcare, 8, 46; doi:10.3390/healthcare8010046
Cohen, M.J. (2020) Does the COVID-19 outbreak mark the onset of a sustainable consumption transition?, Sustainability: Science,
Practice and Policy, 16:1, 1-3, DOI: 10.1080/15487733.2020.1740472
Corburn, J et al. (2020) Slum Health: Arresting COVID-19 and Improving Well-Being in Urban Informal Settlements. J Urban Health
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-020-00438-6
Chenghu Zhou, Fenzhen Su, Tao Pei, An Zhang, Yunyan Du, Bin Luo, Zhidong Cao, Juanle Wang, Wen Yuan, Yunqiang Zhu, Ci Song, Jie
Chen, Jun Xu, Fujia Li, Ting Ma, Lili Jiang, Fengqin Yan, Jiawei Yi, Yunfeng Hu, Yilan Liao, Han Xiao, 2020. COVID-19: Challenges to GIS with Big Data, Geography and Sustainability 1 (1), pp. 77-87. ISSN 2666-6839, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2020.03.005.
Fang, H., Wang, L.; Yang, Y. (2020) Human Mobility Restrictions and the Spread of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China NBER
Working Paper No. 26906 Issued in March 2020
Florida, R. (2020) The Geography of Coronavirus. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/04/coronavirus-spread-map-city-urban-density-suburbs-rural-data/609394/
Georgetown University (2020) Urban Pandemic Preparedness Peer-Reviewed Literature. https://ghss.georgetown.edu/urbanprep/literature/#
Haywood, K. M. (2020). A post-COVID future: tourism community re-imagined and enabled. Tourism Geographies, 1-11.
Honey-Roses, Jordi, Isabelle Anguelovski, Josep Bohigas, Vincent K. Chireh, Mr., Carolyn Daher, Cecil Konijnendijk, Jill Litt,
et al. 2020. “The Impact of COVID-19 on Public Space: A Review of the Emerging Questions.” OSF Preprints. April 21. doi:10.31219/osf.io/rf7xa.
Klaus, I. (2020a) The Post-Pandemic Urban Future Is Already Here. https://www.citylab.com/design/2020/04/coronavirus-urban-planning-cities-architecture-history/609262/
Klaus, I. (2020b) Pandemics Are Also an Urban Planning Problem. https://www.citylab.com/design/2020/03/coronavirus-urban-planning-global-cities-infectious-disease/607603/
Shi Zhao, Zian Zhuang, Jinjun Ran, Jiaer Lin, Guangpu Yang, Lin Yang, Daihai He, 2020. The association between domestic train
transportation and novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in China from 2019 to 2020: A data-driven correlational report, Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease 33, 2020, 101568, ISSN 1477-8939, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101568.
Dr. Miguel A. Montoya B.
Profesor Titular
Director de Investigación y Posgrados
Escuela de Arquitectura, Arte y Diseño
TECNOLÓGICO DE MONTERREY
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(+52) 33 3669 3000, Ext. 3799
Enlace intercampus 80 432 3799
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miguel_Montoya_Bayardo
http://ssrn.com/author=944679